Giants lose to Cardinals 2-0 in rain

ST. LOUIS -- Years from now, Yusmeiro Petit might tell the story of the day he threw the first pitch Oscar Taveras ever saw in the big leagues. The memories won't be fond ones.

The gifted outfielder billed locally as the second coming of Albert Pujols hit a solo homer in his second big league at-bat, leading the Cardinals to a 2-0 win that snapped San Francisco's four-game winning streak. The blast sent a jolt though soggy St. Louis and a reminder to the Giants: The defending National League champions tend to reload on the fly.

The Giants took the first two games of the series between two contenders, but Taveras and Michael Wacha, last year's rookie phenom, ruled the third day. Wacha struck out seven in six innings, and the Cardinals bullpen pitched three perfect frames to hand the Giants just their second loss in the last 10 games.

"He's got great stuff. We saw it (watching) the postseason last year," Bochy said of Wacha. "You have your work cut out against this staff and this rotation. We just got shut down by a good pitcher."

The Giants were without their own right-handed stud, but Petit was sharp in place of Matt Cain, who was put on the disabled list Saturday morning with a strained right hamstring. Petit gave up just two hits over six innings but paid for his one mistake.

He had gotten Taveras to fly out in the second inning after the 21-year-old received a standing ovation from the 44,426 at Busch Stadium. The rain came as Taveras walked to the on-deck circle in the fifth, but fans who were scurrying for cover quickly turned and watched his at-bat from the aisles.

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Petit said he didn't know much about Taveras, who has been firmly on the radar in baseball circles since taking the No. 3 spot in Baseball America's prospect rankings last season. He was ranked third again this spring, and was called up from Triple-A on Saturday to replace the injured Matt Adams.

"This was the first time I've seen him," Petit said. "He's got a good swing, you know? He swings hard and he pulls everything, so I tried to stay away and I missed with one pitch."

It was a curveball that was supposed to nail the outside of the plate but instead cut over the heart of it. Taveras took a quick cut and watched his first career big league hit sail over the right field wall. He held the bat up with one hand as Petit jumped off the mound, angry with his location mistake.

As Taveras was pushed out onto the top step of the dugout for a curtain call, the game went into a 47-minute rain delay.

"I think they were starting to make motions over near the side right before he hit that, too," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "The rain was coming. I could see the grounds crew start to rustle. They almost didn't let him get that at-bat. I'm glad it worked out."

A second delay chased Wacha and Petit, who said he once waited three hours before returning to pitch in a wet winter ball game. The Cardinals tacked on a run in the seventh and cruised to the finish line.

As always with these two teams that have split the past four league titles, there was some excitement in the ninth. Hard-throwing right-hander Trevor Rosenthal entered to face Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse, three free-swinging sluggers. Rosenthal threw a 98 mph fastball past Pence and a 96 mph fastball past Sandoval before freezing Morse with a two-strike 98 mph fastball.

Buster Posey was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game because of nerve irritation in his lower back. Posey has missed five games in the past two weeks because of the injury, and Bochy said it's possible he will sit out Sunday as well since the Giants have a day off Monday.